YLE poll: The PS is expected to make the biggest gains in the October municipal elections

A poll commissioned and published by YLE on Sunday reveals that the Perussuomalaiset (PS) party will make the biggest gains in the October 28 municipal elections. If the PS gets 15.8% of the votes as the poll suggests, it will be a big leap from 5.4% that the party got in the 2008 municipal elections.

The poll sees that the National Coalition Party getting in October 22.7% compared with 23.5% in 2008. That would be followed by the Social Democrats with 18.7% (21.2%), and the Center Party with 16.6% (20.1%).

Even if the PS are seen making significant gains in the municipal elections, it is a sharp fall from what polls showed the PS getting in summer 2011. Back then, the PS was the biggest party in Finland with 23%, followed by the National Coalition Party (21.6%), Social Democrats (18.1%) and Center Party (13.8%).

If the PS do well in the municipal elections of October, it reveals that some Finnish voters’ confidence in traditional parties has recovered somewhat but not enough to relegate Timo Soini’s party to the minor political leagues.

Some analysts believe the euro crisis and the government’s mixed messages concerning the latter have helped the PS.